The Lincoln Connection

We’ve told you about our neighbor Rabbit Goody before (click here). As one of the world’s foremost authorities on historic textiles, she lectures around the world and repairs historic textiles for museums. But one of the most interesting aspects of her career has been the love affair between her and Hollywood. Out of her unassuming shop just outside of Sharon Springs, she has woven fabrics that have appeared in movies such as Indiana Jones, John Adams, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Road to Perdition and others.

She’s collaborated on the movies of Steven Spielberg on multiple occasions beginning with Amistad and worked with actor Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, so it was no surprise that she was called upon to create textiles for the movie Lincoln.

Lincoln is often depicted in paintings and in statues with a large drape of cloth (note the back of the chair in the photo of the Lincoln Memorial above). This is actually a shawl.

During the time period, women often wore a triangular shawl (similar to our Little Black Riding Hood) that covered the head, shoulders and arms. Men also wore shawls, but they were rectangular in shape and were wrapped around the shoulder.

The Smithsonian Institute has one of Lincoln’s shawls as part of the permanent collection.

Click through the slide show below to see how Rabbit re-created the shawl for use in the movie.

Want to learn to weave? Read Rabbit’s book, Pattern Weaving: Basics for the Hand Loom during this event. This large format guide is published by Stackpole Books and is full of how-to photos. To purchase, click here

This is so interesting — I used to work for “Interweave Press”, they published fantastic books and a magazines (Handwoven & SpinOff) pertaining to weaving and spinning. I’m sure she has some of their publications in her library. Thanks so much for the storyline.